Xbox One game libraries can be shared with non-family members, says Spencer

Xbox One may not be as heavy-handed with content restriction as it first appears, according to some new chatter from Microsoft’s Phil Spencer. He has said in a new interview that players will be able to share their game library with people outside their household.

Now, don’t take the above paragraph as some kind of all-forgiving about-face on Microsoft’s restrictions so far, but what Spencer has said does seem to cool the flames a little, although they’re far from doused.

It was recently confirmed that Xbox One will allow users to share their library of games with up to ten family members, but as it happens those people don’t have to be in your family. At all.

“It’s not ten different people all playing the game concurrently, but when you think about a real usage scenario, and we thought about it around a family, and I know certain people will create a family group of people that aren’t all part of the same family. And I do think that’s an advantage, and people will use that.

“I saw it on NeoGAF instantly, the Xbox Family creation threads, where people said ‘Hey be a part of my family’. No birth certificates will need to be sent in. I do think that’s an advantage of the ecosystem that we have.”

There’s also confirmation that two people in your ‘family’ will be able to access the same files in your library simultaneously, but it’s unclear if this will apply to full games or not.